Scrappage Scheme - are there any good cars?

[beau]

just keep your marea tbh, if you do trade it in, find a cheap marea on ebay and swap over the number plates/id's and get £4000 roughly back rather than £2000 bit naughty but tbh they wont even look at the vin plate!

my bravo has been my most reliable car so far just get past your teething problems and it will be great.

 

[ChrisUK]

the 'base crappy slow one' is more powerful than most of the fiats you can buy lol, 160ps

yeah and still pumps out a fair amount of greenhouse gas hence my shock at the government giving you 2k to buy one

 

[StevenRB45]

yeah and still pumps out a fair amount of greenhouse gas hence my shock at the government giving you 2k to buy one

You can get a Bentley on scrappage IIRC...its more about keeping car factories open I'd guess.

 

[ChrisUK]

You can get a Bentley on scrappage IIRC...its more about keeping car factories open I'd guess.

Ahh okies. Im sure I read somewhere it was only cars in certain tax bands.

 

[J333EVO]

Either EVO mag or Performance Car mag did a 4ish page article on the scrapage scheme to see if it was worthwhile, or if you could get s good a deal anyway with just haggling.

But in there investigation the best car you could get on the scrapage scheme was the Suzuki Swift Sport for a few reasons.

One, you can't get a discount on a Swift Sport, so haggling offered no discounts.

Two, after getting your £2k off the £11900 asking price brings it down to £9900 but if you hand over an extra £1600 IIRC you can then get the car on 0% finance over 2 years.

Three, the Swift Sport has a very high retained value, again part of the fact no discounts are given when new and as such you could sell after the 2 years are up and not lose much at all.

No it will be no where near as fast as the Marea, but it will be cheap to run, have manufaturer warrenty, reliable, which then leaves you to maybe have a small project on the side to play with and not have to use it as your everyday car. They even brought out a white one recently due to public demand as only available in red, black or silver.

EVO mag recently ran a small hot hatch test, Swift, TwingoSport, Colt Ralliart, Panda 100HP, 500Abarth and the Swift and Twing were head and shoulders above the rest voted the best of them all in terms of driver involvment feedback and handling and fun.

Oh and if you like it and think I want more, Suzuki Sport & HKS amongst other do turbo and supercharger kits giving over 180bhp+ being Jap the mods are near endless.

 

[hmallett]

...after getting your £2k off the £11900 asking price brings it down to £9900 but if you hand over an extra £1600 IIRC you can then get the car on 0% finance over 2 years.

Just to clarify, that's £1600 deposit, not an extra £1600 on top isn't it?
I found the Suzuki Swift to be great fun on the open road. See if you can live with it in town and that interior though.

 

[bulldog5046]

thanks for the information Aaron, thats much more the price range i'm interested in and as you say just something reliable and a bit of fun.

i will look into it

Ry

 

[J333EVO]

Just to clarify, that's £1600 deposit, not an extra £1600 on top isn't it?
I found the Suzuki Swift to be great fun on the open road. See if you can live with it in town and that interior though.

Its £11900 - £2k scrapage, then further £1600 so finance on £7300 %0 interest, it must be you need to put down a minimum amount ie 20% (£3600 roughly 20% of £11900) to get the 0% deal.

I like the interior think its a nice place to be, fantastic alloy pedals mounted just right and IIRC has a cable operated throttle so you can heal and toe unlike fly-by-wire cars that cut the throttle as soon as brake pedal pressed. Plus a nicely servo'd brake pedal unlike many new cars with far to much servo assistance.

For me where I am sitting compared to how it drives comes a very distant 2nd place. The ride is certainly much better than a Fiat 500.

 

[bulldog5046]

i had a look at the swift and despite the review i just cant get over its external looks, its hideous.

i decided to look at the Panda 100HP and that has taken my fancy at £10,400 OTR before scrappage discount.

the other car i like is the Alfa Mito which a base spec is a similar price to the panda.

the only thing that has swayed me to keeping the marea is that i got a promotion & £4k payrise at work today, suddenly it seems i might be able to afford the running costs but i'm still quite tempted to go for something cheap and reliable.

lets face it, a 100hp would half all my running costs, TAX, insurance, fuel, tyres, brakes.

OR the car i've had my eye on for what feels like forever, a BMW Z4, i'm put off by the running costs, i think it will cost as much as the marea to run

Ry

 

[J333EVO]

Thats a shame, its IMO a better looking car than the Panda, though I like the Panda apart from the 5 door mini people carrier thing, should have been a 3 door option only on 100HP.

Although on paper 8.9 and 9.5secs 0-60 seem close in reality the Panda doesn't crack 10secs to 60 and feels slow, and the Swift will do its quoted time with ease going by all the timed runs I've read in magazines. It's a simple fact that its near enough same car as 500 1.4, same floor pan, engine, gearbox etc same weight yet the 500 is listed as 10.5 0-60.

You can also by the Panda for not much over £7K new from online dealers, this will affect 2nd hand values because if its that new, whats it worth after 3 years.

My friend has a 3L Z4, bought it about 18months back to replace his Clio 172 Scarab (no.3 of 172 made), its quickish, handles well enough, ride was poor, but much improved since changing to normal tyres from run-flats. All in its an OK car, but I would much rather have a Z3M, last M car to have no driver aides, and last of the straight 6 M engines.

But whatever you end up doing I'm sure it will suit you as cars are always a personal choice, and well done on wage rise.

 

[306maxi]

I think for the cars most people are going to buy the scrappage is a bit of a joke. Looking at the Panda deals you can pretty much get similar deals without scrappage, where is works best is cars like the Swift which J333EVO mentioned and the 500 which I scrapped my 406 to buy.

J333EVO, you're not wrong about the ride in the 500. I specced mine with 16" wheels as I didn't like the standard wheels on the lounge and the handling over bumps at speed is hilarious, true comedy handling.

 

[FDF]

I've just ordered a Alfa Romeo Mito under the scrappage scheme, I'm scrapping my '97 20v Marea. I got a better deal on the Mito than I could get on a Grande Punto even though they are basically the same car. That's because Fiat have been quietly putting their prices up.

I couldn't ignore the scrappage deal, the Mito will give me 43 - 48 mpg average the Marea was giving me 30 - 32 mpg if I drove like the vicar. The Mito is covered in air bags and has 5 star Euro Ncap safety rating.

I recently found out how much a new clutch would cost on the Marea with 107,000 miles on the clock it's something that could happen anytime.
I got just over £2000 for a car worth less than £200 in a trade in normally. You can't ignore the figures but I will be sorry to see the Marea go, it's been great to own. I've just got to nurse the Marea through the next 10 -12 weeks until the new car gets here.

 

[bulldog5046]

The Marea has been saved by a fortunate promotion & payrise at work.

i now have a T28 GTi-R hybrid turbo on order for her to replace the second hand one i recently bought that blew its seals after just 1000miles.

next time she may not be so lucky as i'm looking to buy a flat

Ry

 

[Hellcat]

You can't scrap it until I've had a passenger run in her!

 

[bulldog5046]

well if she feels like working when one of the shows is on (preferably with a track!) i'll take you for a blast

Ry